It’s hardly surprising; the United Nations predict that over 60% of the world’s population will live inner city by 2030. This is a significant increase in comparison to the estimated 54.4% in 2016. Cities are growing in both size and in numbers. Last year there were 512 cities worldwide holding at least 1 million inhabitants – that’s 1 in 5 people that live in a city which houses over 1 million people. This will surge to a projected 662 cities by 2030.

With this, cities are having to engage an impressive infrastructure in order to cope with such an influx of people. Cue the smart city. Smart cities use modern technologies as a means of improving overall quality of life and performance, from energy to waste and healthcare to transport.

An increase in interest of the smart city concept has no doubt derived from the rising threat of climate change, so with this in mind, will making cities smarter help us to meet sustainability goals?